Eureka California is a hidden gem of Athens, Georgia. While the music scene in The Classic City presents a plethora of dreamy sounds and echo effects, the indie rock duo exudes a sound that samples from the 90’s rock style and references classic authors and musicians alike. With lyrical spin-offs of Simon & Garfunkel and Martha & The Vandellas, Eureka offers a refreshing sound. The duo consists of guitarist, Jake Ward and drummer, Marie A. Uhler. While they’ve been playing together for five years and may be a relatively new band in the Athens music scene, there is no doubt that this pair is comfortable in their own skin.

Eureka drops their new album, Versus (HHBTM Records), on March 25th, but they’ve been kind enough to give Vinyl Mag an early preview. Versus was recorded at Suburban Home Studios with MJ of Hookworms. The album opens with “Eureka California’s Night In.” The music video features Ward and Uhler walking to Athens’ own Little Italy for a slice a pizza and ends with a night on the couch watching what can only be an endless vortex of cat videos. Stylistically, Eureka is energetic with a hint of cynicism. Ward’s powerful vocals and stark guitar melodies are amplified by Uhler’s merciless drumbeats.

Lyrically, Versus embodies the isolation that comes with the uniformity and calamity of living in a cityscape. Eureka cleverly combines lively melodies with lyrics about passing up a night on the town for a quiet night in the house. Ward sings about the pageant that is Athens nightlife, although this can be applied to any city with a string of bars dedicated to millennial past-times, “I’m much too slow for a social animal.” In a city where 2 a.m. beckons the “final call”, you ask yourself, “Where did my time and money go?” Consequentially, you believe your night would’ve been better spent indoors, as Ward explains, “When I turn on the TV it makes me feel like someone’s home.” How often do we feel a strong sense of closeness to the voices coming through our televisions? There’s a strange comfort that comes with the mindless drone of advertisements in a city where nightlife conversations consist of platitudes about college majors and an uncertain future; it certainly can make you feel like “the only living boy in Athens, Georgia. However, it would be unjustified to deem Eureka as “recluse,” in fact, it seems that they also know how to have a good time, as Ward explains a typical night on the town, “Wearing clothes that I found at the bar, and I’m sobering up in the back of your car…Summer’s here and the time is right for getting black out drunk in the street.”

While the city harbors a sense of romance and unity from an outsider’s perspective, Eureka California seems to transport their listeners through the shenanigans that come with warm weather to the underlying loneliness that comes with being in a large crowd. Eureka can hang, but they also know the importance of solitude and self-awareness. Versus is dance inducing, fun and cohesive, but Eureka’s identity comes out in the lyrics. A smart listener should appreciate the modern rock group’s energy and be able to peel back the layers of their upbeat sound to find Eureka’s ability to reference reality in a subtle stream of lyrics.

Eureka California, oddly enough hailing from Athens in Georgia not their namesake, have been pushing out sounds in their home country for a number of years now. But with this as their third release they’ve decided that the UK is primed for being infiltrated. They’ve dipped their toes in before. In the summer of 2015, and previously the band toured with Witching Waves as their support, so they’re pretty well embedded in the raw rock and punk side of things.

Being as the place of Eureka itself in just under 3,000 miles away from their hometown there’s a good chance that the music the band makes is, in some way, holding a torch for the California sound. It’s sunshine rock with shit speakers making distortion and noisey fuzz, filling all the gaps between your ears and the instruments. Bluntly, it’s happy energy bottled and delivered straight to you.

As a single ‘Cobwebs on the Wind’ continues this vibe. It’s got the youthful, sunshine image that is jigged across the entirety of the band’s Versus album. However, its subject matter is quite different to that as Jake from the band explains: “This song was written in the same 24-hour period as “I Will Write Mine Over Potomac” and “Everybody Had A Hard Year.” The original working title was “The Transported Man.” We still write the song as “Transported Man” on all of our setlists. The song is about death from a realist perspective.” The staccato strums and an effortlessly speedy vocal deliver “it’s always the same and it will never change” as a final parting shot for barely three minutes of blasted energy.

For drummer Marie, ‘Cobwebs on the Wind’ still holds a melancholy feel, “During the recording process a few things happened during this song that I had never tried before or gotten to work before, and it was really exciting to me to finally work them out. It is one of my favorite songs to play, but it made me really sad to listen to for a long time. Maybe having fun playing it makes it easier to deal with what the song is about.” When the remainder of the album is released at the end of March previous single ‘Sign My Name with an X’ will surely impress, but back burner album tracks ‘Another Song About TV’ and ‘Everybody Had A Hard Year’ make sure that Versus doesn’t blow its load early but pace itself over the course of 11 (albeit incredibly short) tracks. For fans of feel good bands that blast out a short, energetic, concise, no nonsense reel of punk songs where the solos consist of no more than two notes, Eureka California are here. For fans ofTokyo Police Club, just as much as Dinosaur Jr.

As shambolic as the cover would seem to indicate Eureka California’s Versus is a crazy ride through the indie rock lexicon. Sounding like a perfect smash up between Daydream Nationera Sonic Youth, Slanted and Enchanted Pavement, a bit of Superchunk and some surf guitarVersus is a noisy wrangled record of chaotic fun. This is a sloppy and loud record that hits you over the head with massive melodies, geeky guitar work, and songs that are hard to forget.

Eureka California don’t necessarily write anything overly complicated but what they do write seems to be held together by some broken guitar strings, duct tape, and a bit of luck. It’s all very messy but its simplistic nature is its greatest asset. This is a homage to classic 90’s indie rock made with a heart the size of Texas and it’s so in love with that era it’s hard to believe this was released this year. Versus is an awesome listen and catchier than the zika virus it’s songs recklessly careen through three minutes like a 90 year old granny backing up in a parking lot. Rough, raw and prone to blowing speakers Versus is a shining example of how indie rawk should be played.

Eureka California’s Versus could fall apart at any point while it’s being listened to. Its disheveled songs, shaky walls of noisy guitars and muddled melodies somehow manage to hold together just long enough to work their way into your consciousness and never leave. It is almost impossible to dislike sloppy stuff like this because its organic nature is so unpolished and raw that its intentions are laid bare. Eureka California are an awesome band and Versus is a trip well worth making.

Athens, GA duo Eureka California will release their third album, Versus, on March 25 via Happy Happy Birthday to Me. They went to Leeds, UK to make this record at Suburban Home, the studio run by MJ from Hookworms (he produced it too). Already a band who like things loose and with the volume all the way up, the new album sounds like a ripper judging from singles “Eureka California’s Night In” and “Sign My Name With An X.” Both tracks match noise with big pop hooks, and the video for the latter makes its premiere in this post. Directed by the band’s Marie A. Uhler and Jake Ward, it details what a night in for them looks like. Check that out below.

The band have already been announced for this year’s NYC Popfest, but they’ll be on tour this month as well, including a stop at Brooklyn’s Alphaville on Wednesday, March 9 with Haybaby, Total Slacker and Parlor Walls. Tickets are on sale.

All tour dates are listed, along with the album art, tracklist, video and song stream, below.

Eureka Califonia is one of those myriad band names that’s irritating as hell to search for online, but the difficulty’s kind of the point. This is a band you want people to have to earn the discovery of, which makes this review kind of a double-edged sword. I want you all to know about the band’s rough-hewn power pop, but I feel like it’s something for which you should work.

Versus is one of those records you put on, and you’re rewarding with track after track which reward you for taking the time to pull the record out of its jacket and onto your turntable. Calling the whole affair ramshackle implies that the duo put the record together hastily and without thought, but it’s actually more that it feels as if it’s being played so enthusiastically, it might fall apart in delightful shambles.
Songs like “Sign My Name With An X” are the Replacements playing My Bloody Valentine songs, or vice versa, even. The loud, rocking midwestern feel of all this belies Eureka California’s Athens roots, but it’s not your standard rock music. The duo twists tropes and standards in a way that recalls the genre-bending efforts of so many other artists which have made their way out of that Georgia town and into American consciousness.

“Fear and Loathing in the Classic City” is a downtempo piece of strummed acoustics, and it manages to have enough life it in that it doesn’t kill the momentum of Versus. There’s still a level to it that maintains the energy off the first side and onto the second — and that’s important, because the second side is where the gold is.

Hidden in the middle of Versus’ second side is the slow rocker, “Realizing Your Actuality,” which might just be the album’s highlight. It’s not a blaster or flat-out rocker, but manages to convey a sense of urgency and intensity, even at its grinding pace. It’s a precursor the slowed-down quiet jams of “Everybody Had a Hard Year” and the loud-quiet-loud epic closer, “I Will Write Mine Over the Potomac.”

If you freaked out over Titus Andronicus’ latest, or anything that’s come down that bearded indie rocker doing punk rock pike in the last few years, this is for you. If you find that style of music detestable, here’s it done right. If that closer doesn’t grab you and shake your emotions loose, you’ve no heart. Get on it.

The cover’s a little bit faux screenprint, which is kind of a bummer. I don’t know if it would be cooler as an actual screenprint, or if the art was just a little less garish. The cover for Crunch was understated and classy, but this seems to scream “LOOK AT ME!” a little more than I’d like. The vinyl sounds amazing, and has a really nice range. There’s also an insert with lyrics, along with a download card. Solid package.